We are here in the real presence of Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist, in the monstrance. He’s truly here. This is not a symbol. So, Lord, with Your permission, allow me to speak in Your presence and tell another story about the Holy Eucharist.
God is still in control of the weather.
Hi everyone, this is Father Rocky in the Chapel of the Nativity with another story about the Holy Eucharist in our series of Eucharistic Encounters.
I remember this one very clearly because I witnessed it myself over the past 15 years. One week each summer, I volunteered to be a chaplain at the boys’ camp down at Wynncliff Conference and Retreat Center. It’s right on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, and for years now on Thursdays, we’ve had Adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament all day long. And then after dinner, around 7 in the evening, we do a Eucharistic procession on the property. It’s beautiful. We go to three separate places on the property where we’ve set up wonderful altars. We have a canopy with eight or ten servers – two have the bells, four have torches, and the rest have incense. It’s a big event.
Well, several years ago, the weather looked frightening as we prepared for the procession – like tornadoes were coming right after dinner! There was no way I was taking the kids out into that. But Mike Wynn, who was in charge of the event, said we were still going to have a procession and that we should start with the prayers. Maybe the weather would calm down and the lightning would stop!
So we prayed in the chapel while it stormed outside. We prayed a Rosary, sang all 8 verses of “For All the Saints”, and ran out of things to do. Suddenly I realized I haven’t heard any thunder for the last 10 minutes – and it certainly wasn’t raining as hard as it had been before. I prayed to Our Lady of Fair Skies and we took a chance.
The procession began. The boys grabbed the candles off the altar, and as soon as we got outside with the canopy, the rain stopped. As we crossed the meadow, I could see the sun was beginning to come underneath the clouds. We knelt down at the first station in front of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and prayed an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be along with four verses of St. Thomas Aquinas’ wonderful hymn, “Laude Sion”.
The procession continued and as we went across the driveway by the main house, right over the cliff overlooking the lake, I saw the most magnificent rainbow out there. Everybody saw it and they knew God was smiling on Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Because God is still in control of the weather; in fact, He’s in control of everything.
Folks, I tell you these stories so they can increase your faith, that you know that you’re not alone. And if you have a need, if you have a problem, bring it to Jesus. Go to your church and visit him. Go to the Adoration Chapel and get on your knees. And by all means, come next year to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Let’s all show up for Jesus!
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